Mother-in-Law
by betawho
Summary: Conversations with your mother-in-law can be so difficult, especially when she's Amy... "Do you have any idea how weird it is that you're married to my baby?"


"Do you have any idea how weird it is that you're married to my baby?" Amy asked.

The Doctor stared at her over the cafe table, like a deer caught in headlights, a chip halfway to his open mouth.

He closed his mouth, and cleared his throat, carefully lowering the chip to his basket. They were in 1950's America, Rory and River had gone to rent them a car. They were going to do the whole "American Route 66 Road Trip" thing, (Rory's idea).

Amy was glaring at him meditatively and sipping at her Coke.

He cleared his throat again, looking anywhere but at her. "Uhm. I'm sorry?" he said.

"Oh, don't be sorry." She slapped him on the shoulder. "But it's just weird, you know? I've known you since I was a little girl. And here I am, your mother-in-law." She pointed a fry at him.

He flinched back. She laughed. And ate it.

That was somehow not reassuring.

"I mean," she continued, picking up her hot dog, "I know she's River. And I called it. As soon as I saw the two of you together, I knew. But, it's still weird. She's my little Melody, of the scrunchy face and big lungs. Heck, she was heckling your hair and bowtie before she could even speak. And, by the way, I _still _don't believe you can speak Baby," she said, taking a big mouthful of her hotdog.

Her eyes stayed on him as she chewed. He shifted in his seat and half turned, wondering when River and Rory were coming back.

"Are you a good husband?"

His head whipped back, his eyes wide.

She threw her head back and pealed at the horrified look on his face. She chuckled into her chips. Swirling a chip around in the ketchup. She loved having him on tenterhooks like this. Rory would never let her. But there had to be some advantages to being his mother-in-law.

The bell over the door dinged, and River sauntered in wearing a slim skirted business suit that did nothing to hide her curves. Rory trotted clumsily in behind her, looking more like her son than her father.

River took one look at the Doctor's flushed face and desperate "Help me!" eyes, and turned to Amy. Amy grinned a completely unrepentant grin at her and ate her chip.

"Mummy, are you terrorizing my husband again?" River asked, sliding into the booth beside the Doctor. She leaned over and gave him a red lipsticky kiss on the cheek. He flushed bright red and looked desperately at Rory.

Rory slid in beside Amy and saw the conspiratorial looks the two women were giving each other. He held his hands up. "Don't look at me, mate. You're on your own."

Amy looked across the table at her daughter and son-in-law. River was wiping the lipstick stain off his cheek with a thumb, and he was pretending to be embarrassed. Although Amy could tell he was actually lapping it up inside.

She looked at her daughter. She'd never told River, but she could really see her baby's face in River's grown up one. Despite the fact that River had been through several regenerations, this face is the one that looked most like her daughter. Her baby.

She could see so much of Rory in River. When she thought about it, she realized Mels had more strongly resembled her. Which was perhaps why they'd been such great friends.

It was still hard sometimes to realize that Mels and River were the same person.

But as she looked across the table at her daughter, a daughter she'd never been able to raise, and that would always tear at her heart, but her daughter, sitting across from her, laughing with her father, and stealing a chip from her husband's basket, eating it with a slow deliberation and a direct look at her husband that made him flush.

She couldn't wish for anything more. Her family may have been unconventional. But it was strong. Her baby had grown up into a strong and amazing woman. And she had a good, strong man who loved her.

And the Doctor probably thought she couldn't see him holding River's hand under the table.

Well, she'd let him get away with it for now.

After all, mother-in-laws always need ammunition.

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